LIBRARIANS’ PERCEPTION ON THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A TOOL FOR INFORMATION SERVICE PROVISION IN KASHIM IBRAHIM LIBRARY, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA

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Social media have become an indispensable and current trend of communication in the modern era today, as a result of this, academic libraries adopt social media such as Facebook, X (formally Twitter), YouTube, and Flickr for effective and efficient information services provision in the 21st century. The study investigates the librarians’ perception on the use of social media (SM) as a tool for information service provision in Kashim Ibrahim Library, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A total number of 91 copies of the questionnaire were administered to the respondents and a total of 85 were returned and found useful for the study. All data were categorized and analysed using tables, frequency, and simple percentage were used to analyse the data. Findings revealed that SM are used to render various library services. However, the major challenges faced by the academic library staff when using SM for information services provision include inadequate power supply, inadequate bandwidth, security privacy and copyright issues, high cost of Internet services. The study recommended that the academic librarians should be encouraged in the use of SM to develop their skills in information services provision.